Fred wrote:I have no idea if Garrison is a good pick up or not ? time will tell. Remember a defenseman we got from Tallon before, the maidens pray answered....Ballard. Gillis I like but I'm thinking Tallon is better

You'd have to be a moron not to realize that it would not be peachy environment if Lou was still in the picture come next season, not when you peel away all that thin layer of professionalism and phoney talk with the media. Lou wants out people, wants to move on, a fresh start, a new beginning. He will put on that prototypical brave face and small talk but beneath all that, his heart left this city when he was benched for Ginger in the L.A. playoff series. Do you want that negativeness in the room? How happy will he be, donning a jersey he knows that eventually he won't be wearing anymore while that lame ass Gillis is working the phones trying to trade him. I will commend that brave face that Lou will put on if he is still around cause ya know he will for he is a class act, but beneath all that, he won't be happy.

Haha, looks like you thought I was calling you out, Big Fella, but I thought it was obvious that I was talking about a certain leather-pants wearing radio hack that has an annoying fucking tendency to TALK IN ALL CAPS when he posts here. We'll get back to Mr. Bikelane Crisis in a second.

As for the title, thanks, but you're way off base. If you were familiar with my posting history - both here and the now non-existant ones at Central - you'd find that I certainly tend to give Gillis the benefit of the doubt, but I'm hardly "Gillis Apologost no. 1".

The guy has made some mistakes - all GM's do - but two President's Trophies in a row and an SCF game 7 loss does indicate to me that the guy is somewhere above the level of "hack" or "lame ass", which is certainly where you seem to categorize him.

As for Luongo, clearly Gillis - along with all the rest of us - would prefer to have him start the year on another team. That's very obviously preference number one.

But when you have a guy like Luongo on the trading block, well, a guy like that doesn't come around too often. It's like selling a $30M penthouse - it's a select market, so you have to patient in finding a proper fit in the buyer.

This is a game of chicken, and so far Gillis is playing it just fine. He's waiting for the right offer on the penthouse. So far, he's getting lowball offers. Because the prospective buyers aren't wanting to pay the proper price...yet.

But GMMG can wait. We have the cap space, and we have a great bunch with really great chemistry. Luongo partly lost his job here because he's got female troubles and he needs to get closer to home - that's not a factor that the Canucks control.

So long as he and Gillis are on the same page of scratching each other's backs - ie. Luo giving more than one destination and MG making an honest effort to move the guy - I couldn't disagree more with your drama queen shit above and I'll say it's not going to be a problem...internally at least.

The press in this town, however, already have their clubs picked out with which they will beat the living fuck out of this horse. They will kill it and then continue to beat it like Michael fucking Jackson.

THAT WAS MY ORIGINAL POINT.

They will pound this day and night. And you know that eventually, it WILL become a problem. That's why it's likely that the grace period will run out by around Xmas time.

Assuming, of course, that that's after 3 months of actual hockey. Keep in mind that w the expiring CBA, we may not even see a puck drop before New Year's regardless, so all of this hand-wringing may be for naught anyway. Gillis may actually have untill March or something.

You'd have to be a moron not to realize that it would not be peachy environment if Lou was still in the picture come next season, not when you peel away all that thin layer of professionalism and phoney talk with the media. Lou wants out people, wants to move on, a fresh start, a new beginning. He will put on that prototypical brave face and small talk but beneath all that, his heart left this city when he was benched for Ginger in the L.A. playoff series. Do you want that negativeness in the room? How happy will he be, donning a jersey he knows that eventually he won't be wearing anymore while that lame ass Gillis is working the phones trying to trade him. I will commend that brave face that Lou will put on if he is still around cause ya know he will for he is a class act, but beneath all that, he won't be happy.

Haha, looks like you thought I was calling you out, Big Fella, but I thought it was obvious that I was talking about a certain leather-pants wearing radio hack that has an annoying fucking tendency to TALK IN ALL CAPS when he posts here. We'll get back to Mr. Bikelane Crisis in a second.

As for the title, thanks, but you're way off base. If you were familiar with my posting history - both here and the now non-existant ones at Central - you'd find that I certainly tend to give Gillis the benefit of the doubt, but I'm hardly "Gillis Apologost no. 1".

The guy has made some mistakes - all GM's do - but two President's Trophies in a row and an SCF game 7 loss does indicate to me that the guy is somewhere above the level of "hack" or "lame ass", which is certainly where you seem to categorize him.

As for Luongo, clearly Gillis - along with all the rest of us - would prefer to have him start the year on another team. That's very obviously preference number one.

But when you have a guy like Luongo on the trading block, well, a guy like that doesn't come around too often. It's like selling a $30M penthouse - it's a select market, so you have to patient in finding a proper fit in the buyer.

This is a game of chicken, and so far Gillis is playing it just fine. He's waiting for the right offer on the penthouse. So far, he's getting lowball offers. Because the prospective buyers aren't wanting to pay the proper price...yet.

But GMMG can wait. We have the cap space, and we have a great bunch with really great chemistry. Luongo partly lost his job here because he's got female troubles and he needs to get closer to home - that's not a factor that the Canucks control.

So long as he and Gillis are on the same page of scratching each other's backs - ie. Luo giving more than one destination and MG making an honest effort to move the guy - I couldn't disagree more with your drama queen shit above and I'll say it's not going to be a problem...internally at least.

The press in this town, however, already have their clubs picked out with which they will beat the living fuck out of this horse. They will kill it and then continue to beat it like Michael fucking Jackson.

THAT WAS MY ORIGINAL POINT.

They will pound this day and night. And you know that eventually, it WILL become a problem. That's why it's likely that the grace period will run out by around Xmas time.

Assuming, of course, that that's after 3 months of actual hockey. Keep in mind that w the expiring CBA, we may not even see a puck drop before New Year's regardless, so all of this hand-wringing may be for naught anyway. Gillis may actually have untill March or something.

.By Ryan Lambert .PostsWebsiteEmailRSS .By Ryan Lambert | Puck Daddy – Mon, Aug 6, 2012 10:13 AM EDT....Email.....Getty ImagesHello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

There is little doubt that Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis would very much prefer to move Roberto Luongo for obvious reasons.

Luongo simply cannot any longer be seen as a viable option after he was repeatedly sat in favor of Cory Schneider in the playoffs last season, and has been routinely disquieted by trade rumors. He's expensive. He's signed long-term. He might not be as good as the Schneider. Everyone on earth expects that he will be traded before the season starts.

But the longer this summer rolls on, the stranger the scenario seems to be. Back in June, there were several teams mentioned in connection with Luongo's services, but that number has slowly been whittled away to just one: Florida. And yet there seems to be less movement now than there was even into July. We're now past 100 days of this saga.

Earlier in the week, we were told that Gillis has a very specific directive for Florida: Give us Nick Bjugstad. Florida has repeatedly denied that request, and so we wait.

The interesting thing is that Gillis has repeatedly said he was more than willing to enter next season with both Luongo and Schneider remaining as his goaltending tandem. The idea was probably first bandied about on the Canucks' getaway day, and earned a few guffaws from those who couldn't possibly imagine such a scenario because, y'know, come on. They had to trade him because… well, they just had to do it, right?

But now it's early August, and it's getting harder and harder to disbelieve him. Uncomfortable for pretty much everyone involved? Sure. But he's not in the position that Scott Howson was with Rick Nash.

"We're listening," Gillis told NHL.com. "We have been listening to teams that are interested in acquiring him. If we get what we think the value is there we'll trade him. I don't have a timetable. In fact, in hockey things can change in five minutes with one phone call. It's unrealistic to put a timetable on it."

Gillis can sit back and wait for the Panthers to come to him on this. With or without Luongo, his team can still end the regular season No. 1 in the Western Conference as they have the last two seasons. His team isn't the one with the need, but is Florida ready to enter another season with Jose Theodore and Scott Clemmensen between the pipes, especially given how teams in their division have improved in this offseason? Can they count on another freakishly bad Washington team scraping along all year?

Dale Tallon may love what Bjugstad brings to his organization, but does he love it more than a significantly improved chance to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season? That's what Gillis is counting on, and he's no dummy. This is the guy who artificially drove up Cody Hodgson's trade value with favorable zone starts for weeks in an effort to work a more advantageous deal for himself.

Everyone is aware that the Canucks don't especially want Luongo on the roster, and if a team really does, then they're going to have to come to heel and acquiesce to Gillis' demands. As with most Canucks trades, he's running this beautifully. It's likely that no one involved would actually be happy to have Luongo back at Canucks training camp next month, but at the same time, it also wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for that team either.

I have to agree with this guy. I believe that Gillis holds all of the cards.

Fred wrote: One thing for sure MG will be for ever judged by this trade

I will forever put Gillis in the Jack Gordon category of the worse GM's this team has ever seen. His trade record is fucking awful, and I am pretty much resided with the fact that the Luongo trade will be along the same lines of terribleness for this organization. For Gillis to get back in my good books he will have to rid this team of David Booth, Keith Ballard and Manny Malhotra.

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

We've seen what a GM has to do to get in your good books (fail to land a player via offer sheet, sign the best player at his position in UFA to a contract that looks awful already after a year, deal away the two missing pieces for a Stanley cup winner).. It doesn't really seem to have any connection to being a successful GM.

dbr wrote:We've seen what a GM has to do to get in your good books (fail to land a player via offer sheet, sign the best player at his position in UFA to a contract that looks awful already after a year, deal away the two missing pieces for a Stanley cup winner).. It doesn't really seem to have any connection to being a successful GM.

What's your point danbobrob?

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

But there is nothing he could have done about Malhotra's injury. He was ripping it up (by defensive forward standards) before he got hurt.

I'll agree that players making 4+ million formerly out of Florida have failed to produce. I'll also agree that Kassian has so far been useless. Booth and Ballard are particularly atrocious additions.

But the time to assess Gillis' performance is not now. Unless of course you go off of the fact that his teams have been BAR NONE the most successful Canucks teams in the 40 year history.

Sure he didn't acquire Sedins, Burrows, Luongo, Kesler, Schneider...but he also didn't trade any of them. And he resigned some of them. Credit has to be given maintaining, cultivating and developing a team. Before Gillis, they were soft pansies who hadn't made it out of the second round in 13 seasons. He's been above average that's for sure.

dbr wrote:We've seen what a GM has to do to get in your good books (fail to land a player via offer sheet, sign the best player at his position in UFA to a contract that looks awful already after a year, deal away the two missing pieces for a Stanley cup winner).. It doesn't really seem to have any connection to being a successful GM.

What's your point danbobrob?

Well, beyond the point that being in your good books means sweet fuck all...

I was not saying that the tradeing of Luongo will be the only measure of his success as a GM but he will be remembered by it. If he fails to get a meaningful piece back or fails to move him ( and lets not pretend MG is happy to go along with Luo + Schneider ) then it will be a black mark in his ledger

While I agree and I'm guessing that everyone from Aquaman to the stickboy agree, we've been one of the top teams for a few years. I'm still amazed how everyone is griping about Gillis. He's held this team together, created the first 'culture of winning' in this team's history, won 2 President's Cups and seen his team lose the eventual Cup winners for the past 3 seasons.

We all know that winning the Cup is a huge achievement (toughest trophy in all of sports, etc), but apparently getting damned close counts for nothing around here. I'm happy with Gillis, and although I don't agree with all of his moves, he has helped to establish this team as a true contender for a number of years. As a fan, I'm much happier with that than the previous years of worrying if we'll even make the playoffs.

I'm guessing that when we do win a Cup, some people will bitch that it wasn't a sweep.